MORE THAN JUST FUNDING – WE CO-CREATE WITH YOU

Kadima Group is an early-stage venture capital firm for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Kadima takes a meaningful stake in companies which can be made successful through our unique model of co-creation as well as funding. We believe first and foremost in the value of people, their skills and attitude as being fundamental factors in the success of new ventures.

Kadima's approach allows companies to draw on our deep entrepreneurial experience, wisdom and resources to increase the prospects of each venture's success. We are experienced entrepreneurs who have built substantial companies from inception through to exit. With our operational experience we contribute more than just funding for the ventures we back. Using a collaborative and 'hands on' approach we work side by side with our founders as fellow entrepreneurs to help make their concept a reality.

We are passionate about innovation and technology – and perhaps most importantly, we are passionate about business. It is the intersection of these 3 key areas that we deeply believe can drive an idea from concept through to profitable reality. We view technology as an enabler of incredibly efficient new business models which can be used to solve real world operational problems – all while generating revenue from day one. Our passion translates directly into our venture model in which we act as collaborative partners with our founders, rather than simply an avenue of funding.

TEAM

Gary Munitz – Managing Director

Gary Munitz holds a BSc in Computer Science and Computational and Applied Mathematics from WITS. In 1999, he founded Global Internet Technologies that was later sold to an ASX listed company. Gary has vast experience helping start ups commercialise and played an integral role with Get Price that was sold to News Corp in 2005 and Menulog that was sold to UK listed company Just Eat for $855m in early 2015. Gary is focused on leveraging data analytics to drive powerful outcomes for businesses Kadima Group chooses to partner with.

Ben Lipschitz – Partner

Ben Lipschitz holds a BA & LLB (Hons) from UNSW. In 2009 he founded Flipsters, an international footwear brand distributed across 16 countries and acquired in 2014. More recently Ben was Group Director for a publicly listed company specialising in big data analytics where he drove product and group strategy, sales and strategic partnerships. Ben is passionate about innovation and is particularly interested in how software can act as a business enabler to drive new operations with unique revenue streams.

Tim Chandler – Partner

Tim Chandler is a highly experienced software engineer who is technically proficient in a variety of systems and programming languages. Tim was the lead engineer behind Menulog and other successful software builds. Tim's experience over 13 years goes beyond an acute technical understanding as he appreciates and recognises the business requirements of his software both now and into the future. Tim has built a number of large scale systems that cover various elements of technical development involving multiple countries, currencies, API's and more.

WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW, AND WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

OUR APPROACH

We are dedicated to adding value for our founders beyond just funding. As such, we are strongly guided by our core values in choosing our investments. Our investment principles are simple and follow our ethos as entrepreneurs passionate about building profitable technology companies. We believe money is a commodity, and every investor should add substantial further value to the company for a mutual benefit.

A: We believe first and foremost in the value of people, their skills and attitude as being fundamental factors in the success of new ventures. Given we work side by side with our chosen ventures, it is also equally important that you feel good about partnering with us. We are passionate about innovation, technology (particularly software), real world operations and strong repeatable revenue business models. The intersection of these areas guides our investment philosophy, where we see technology as an enabler of a scalable business aiming to solve real world operational problems – while generating some kind of revenue from day one.

A: We believe venture capital should involve more than you seeking capital and us seeking to back one of many 'winning' ideas. Rather, we aim to increase both of our prospects of success by allowing ventures to draw on our deep entrepreneurial experience, wisdom and resources. Co-creation does not mean we seek control or to smother your idea, but rather that we supplement your skills with our own for a mutual benefit.

Specifically this means you can access daily, amongst other things: founders of ventures like Menulog who understand everything from inception through to customer acquisition, marketing, handling growth and exiting; developers who have built large scale software platforms from scratch; marketing and strategic experts who understand team building, branding, revenue generation and scaling. Ultimately we are experienced entrepreneurs who have built substantial companies from inception through to exit, and we are here to help co-create with you.

A: Kadima Group focuses on early stage ventures who are post seed round. Typically we will invest in companies that already have had at least $500,000 to $1m of seed or angel funding and have demonstrated significant progress in building a viable business or product. We find these companies tend to have been operational for approximately 1 – 2 years and have some level of repetition in sales. They also tend to have at least one notable anchor customer and preferably in more than one geography.

A: There are many accelerators and angel funds in Australia and we aim to partner with most (if not all) of them. We believe it is invaluable to gain both advice and funding from these seed organisations as you build your business along key metrics you have identified. We encourage you to work with these initial stage organisations while keeping us in the loop on your progress. If your idea fits our investment philosophy outlined above, we would prefer to get to know entrepreneurs as best as possible before we invest in them and this usually means starting a relationship early.

A: We're always willing to talk to entrepreneurs and expect you to have done your homework. We'd assume in seeking to meet us you have a strong team that is more than one person with an idea. You also will not be lacking in a key skillset which would be required to deliver your idea, for example you are commercial but just need someone technical to succeed. We would expect to see all the market sizing, competitor analysis (globally and locally), technology research, financial modelling, go-to-market strategy and so on. If you are unable to articulate these things succinctly in a well presented format, you're unlikely to be ready to talk to us for the moment.

From a prior funding perspective, it is also helpful for us to know:

How much funding have you had to-date and from whom?

What is the company and shareholder structure?

How long have you been in operation?

What were your revenues in the last 3, 6 and 12 months?

Do you have an investor deck you can send us?

If you could only measure one metric of your business, what would that be and how has it been tracking? (e.g number of customers, number of re-orders, number of downloads, etc)

A: We look at various factors but mainly we are primarily searching for the following:

Fundamentally we invest in software/internet-driven startups

Your business is post-seed stage and seeking capital in the range of $500k - $1.5m

Typically the business will aim to solve real world operational problems with a software-driven solution – consider our portfolio of business like GetPrice, Menulog or FoodByUs as examples of this

We will look at you and your team first and foremost

We will then look for the following key business features to assess your venture: scalability (including the total potential size of your target market), monopoly market (have you found an area of business that you can do best and exclusively), repeating or recurring revenue, profitability (typically costs grow linearly while revenue grows exponentially), easily understood value proposition (we won’t invest in what we don’t understand), clear metrics (we believe in measurement and constant improvement at all stages), and finally revenue stream from day one

A: Our fund focuses on early stage companies in Australia for the moment. In the next few years we may make some exceptions but it will likely be for teams in our network that we know well with a clear expansion objective in mind. Given we work so closely with our entrepreneurs it is not feasible to deliver our co-creation investment model effectively when we are not with you side by side each step of the way. If we can't provide the level of service that we think our founders deserve, we'd rather not invest.

A: Kadima Group is focused on knowing what we know, and what we don’t. We do not feel that we are sufficiently knowledgeable about businesses outside our domains to be helpful. We focus on businesses that blend real world operational ideas with technology-driven solutions. Specifically, in software, internet, and mobile solutions. If you are seeking funding for ventures that fall far outside this radius, we are not your ideal investor.